Tag Archives: blogging

Soles4Souls Blogging Challenge, 50,000 Pairs of Shoes in 50 Days

November 10, 2008 – 3:41 pm

The 50,000 Pairs in 50 Days Challenge

The only time I really like to jump on the bandwagon is when it is for a good cause.  The blogging groups that I run with are all doing a blogging challenge in conjunction with Soles4Souls in order to raise 50,000 pairs of shoes in 50 days.  All it takes is a $5 donation to 50000shoes.com for 2 pairs of shoes.  This really is a great cause so if you are not able to donate the $5.00 then if you have a chance, just do a blog post about the drive to get the word out.

Check out this list of great bloggers who have picked up the cause.  It is pretty simple, they are trying to get 50,000 pairs of shoes to give to people in need in the next 50 days.  I spent $7 on lunch today, pretty incredible $5 can buy two pairs of shoes.

If nothing else, check out that great list of bloggers.  I am sure there are more, if you are already involved just post your blog in the comments below so we can check it out.

The Details on 50,000shoes.com

IT’S THE LAUNCH OF 50000SHOES.COM!

Click to continue reading “Soles4Souls Blogging Challenge, 50,000 Pairs of Shoes in 50 Days”

By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Faith | Also tagged ministries, ministry, missions | Comments (3)

Blogging Stats and Our Daily Walk of Faith

August 26, 2008 – 5:24 am

How does your blogging life look? Are you consistent, true, and purposeful when it comes to writing or participating with your blog (or put in another part of your life you take some value with)… no… me neither. I was thinking about this the other day when I really couldn’t find the words for a blog post and just decided to let it go.

Of course then I started drawing parallels of our Christian walk and the consistency in which we blog, and what effect it has on our blog. Once you start blogging for any considerable length of time (a few years for me), you start to think of life in terms of blog posts. I went to see this sporting event, ahhhh good blog post, this guy just cut me off in the highway, let me snap a photo and it will make a great blog post.

How do you know what the effect of writing that blog post has on your blog. We check the stats. Do you love stats as much as I do? I wish I could stat out everything sometimes. I love looking at collections of data like that, it tells us where we can improve, where we failed, where we succeeded. How often do we check our daily walk stats?

Our Daily Walk

Probably 5% of my ideas for blogs posts actually make it to my computer. I would say another 50% of those never make it out of a draft. But what happens to our blog when we just let it go, then try to pick it up, then let it go, well, just check the stats. It looks like an up and down mess, usually.

daily graph of our blogging walk

This graph above is a daily graph of my other photo blog. The piece in the middle there is typical, just up and down with the wind it seems, but it is directly related with what I do with the blog. When I post, the stats go up, when I don’t, they go down. That is how I usually feel in my walk with Christ. I am inspired and walking great one day and the next something happens and I neglect my prayer life that day (or any number of other things), and I feel brought down a notch.

One thing that has taken me a long time to realize is my walk is going to be an up and down event. For some reason we often think once we become Christians we are riding up that hill till we hit those pearly gates, and it just isn’t that way, and the Bible tells us this too.

Among many different places in the Bible, we read in John 16:33

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

I love reading that verse. It reminds me that our life here on earth is not trouble free just because we are Christians, but, it doesn’t say we can just live like the world, forget our walk and our relationship with Christ will be the same.

Our Weekly Walk

I have been a Christian for more than 10 years now, so I have longer stats to look at than just a daily graph. So what if we could look at our walk on a weekly basis instead.

weekly graph of blogging stats

This graph has a little more data. This is showing me the 17th week of the year of 2008 up to week 33-34 of this year. Still some ups and downs visible, but now we can see a trend? I may not be getting it done like I would like every single day, day after day, but I have an overall goal with my blog to keep it fresh and create growth within the blog. So without getting to deep, you get the idea. We can’t keep looking at our daily failures in our walk with Jesus as the sum of our walk. We have a goal as Believers, right, to keep growing and mature in our faith and our walk with the Lord.

Our Monthly Walk

Take it one step farther out and look at our monthly walk.

monthly blogging stat walk

Now we’re talking. I can see that month 11, 12 of 2007 weren’t so good, although they were in existence, but look at the trend. Can we look back over our walk with Christ in months and years and see growth? We may not think so, but if we check the stats of our daily walk, in terms of months and years, we will hopefully find we have grown, but don’t forget about that little notch at the very end of this graph.

What do you do on your blog when you can’t find something to write or just don’t feel like messing with it? I guess I write about stats. Try to plug away at your blog if it is important to you, you will be rewarded yourself by just looking back over time to see how you have grown as a blogger and what you found was important enough to put down in words.

Don’t feel guilty about neglecting your blog either, just open the admin screen, hit the “create new entry” and write something that is on your mind. I have read blog posts that were one word and were great posts. One of my most popular posts was just one photo, so it doesn’t have to be a long drawn out message like this.

By damascus | Posted in Media | Also tagged consistency, stats, the walk | Comments (3)

What’s in a Wordle on The Damascus Blog?

July 21, 2008 – 6:12 am

I thought I would start off with something light hearted for the week here on The Damascus Blog, and then I came across wordle again. If you haven’t seen or used a Wordle yet, it can be very interesting and a little eye opening. I have looked at these now and then but I always try to guess what my most used word will be, and I never seem to be able to get it right, and I wrote every word. [As created on Wordle]

The Wordle Tag Cloud

The word cloud below is a comprehensive look at this blog in total by the words I use (click on the image to see it full size on Wordle). I only wish it was clickable to each word, but perhaps next time. So what stands out in my cloud?

Wordle on The Damascus Blog

For my faith blog, is it the word Jesus, or faith, or Christ, no, this go around, it is the word time. Also appropriate to me since I think time is so important, but I did not know it was my most used word on this blog. Others of note wedding, think, life, Christian, read, and can.

What Does Wordle Say About our Words

What wordle does that I find very interesting, is that it doesn’t lie (it a computer how can it).  The randomness of my words, put in the format I chose, and I find that the small words little and God are in order right on top of each other (lower right), and the word Jesus?

Our church did a series a while back on how we use our words. I love the Wordle, it reminds me once again how our words are used, how important they are, and also what is small or absent in our vocabulary.  Does this translate into our heart, or into our lives.  Well I am not going to make the leap from Wordle to life just yet but it does point out to me what may or may not have importance.

The word Jesus shows up on this wordle, in the very lower left hand corner in tiny little text.  Should be front and center on this tag cloud, bigger than everything else?  I have actually used the name Jesus less, and He, or Him, or Creator more in total, and some times by design for specific reasons, so I don’t think Wordle quite tells the whole story.

What does your wordle say about your blog?

By damascus | Posted in Faith, Media | Also tagged wordle, words | Comments (5)

What Blogs Do You Read and Why

June 4, 2008 – 7:04 am

Google Feed RSS Reader StatsI started looking through my list of blog rss feeds that I read, specifically in the area of faith blogs. I was trying to move things around a bit, as I often do with my feeds. I have around 400 active blog feeds that I go through on my reader, but I have them all sectioned out into genres or topics.

Do you separate out your blogs according to topic or do you even know what blogs you are subscribed to? I have a set of blogs I deemed “believer blogs” that I have pulled aside and I thought I would give out a little link luv to those I read today. The list below is a sample of the feeds I subscribe to in the area of faith or Believer blogs. I am sure there are probably a few on the list below you haven’t read before and there are several that are just fantastic blogs to read.

Bloggers Also Shape Who We Are Now

So why this blog and why now? Well, I realized when reading all the posts from the Blogger Small Group post yesterday that we are all shaped by those we interact with, right? So, does that mean we are shaped by the blogs we are as well, probably.

Proverbs 27:17
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:16-18 (in Context) Proverbs 27 (Whole Chapter)

The area of Christian bloggers is huge and growing. As more pastors from different parts of the world start to pick up on blogging we can all benefit (see Why Should Pastors Blog?, a great look at the topic). It gives them a way to expand on their limited 17 minute message on Sunday morning and we get the chance to discover churches and people we never could before. This is of course more than just an outlet for pastors so jump right in and start blogging.

Alphabetical List of Faith Based Blogs

My faith based list of bloggers is also on my public feed reader pages so you can see a running chronological list of posts by the blogs below on my public feed. This is a live real time list, not static.

Ten Most Recent Posts From Above

Here is a little taste of the last 10 posts from the list above. I can’t say that I have read them all word for word but I have at least skimmed over the subject matter. Some great posts guys, keep up the good work.

Who Did I Miss?

I know this is not a comprehensive list, but these are the blogs that are in my feed reader. What are some of the blogs you read that are not on my list? Please jump in and leave a comment below, there is always room for one more.

What about Proverbs 27:17, do you think we are shaped by what we read, by what blogs we read?

By damascus | Posted in Media | Also tagged links, pastors | Comments (0)

Time Lapse Video of My Work Day // What’s in a Day

May 1, 2008 – 6:18 pm

Another beautiful day down here in the south. This is such a great time of year in this part of the country, but we all know it will be short lived. Hot scorching days are just ahead. Today was one of those days I didn’t have to go anywhere at all and was able to get some work done here in my office.

Welcome Video and Some Time Lapse

First thing I did this morning was finish up my welcome video for my blog pages. I had been putting this off for some time and finally got it done. Instead of me rambling on, after watching this from another blogger it game me the idea to use it in my video. I put this video together yesterday and finished it up today. The refresh rate on the parts where I am talking are not as good as I would have liked, but I think it worked out ok, let me know what you think in the comments below. This is the only time I am going to actually put this video in a blog post, but since this blog post is my “daily post”, this is part of what I did today.

That was pretty much my first try at time lapse but once I saw found out how to do it I was a little enamored by the whole thing. You can really find out a little more about yourself by watching some of these videos. First thing Deborah said was she didn’t realize that I was actually so left hand dominant, me neither.

Everything Else

I did manage to get in my 4 miles of walking today and a long day of general work. No wildlife today other than or normal neighborhood of squirrels. Something neat I found today blogging wise was this new application that will allow you to use video comments, called seesmic. You can see their latest post here, Thwirl with Friendfeed released, you can also sign up for their alpha test at seesmic.com. I am going to try their wordpress plugin and see how it goes.

By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Journal | Also tagged scott, video | Comments (1)

Welcome to the Damascus Blog // Coming Up

November 21, 2007 – 6:31 am

Coming soon this site will have information and links posted about many different topics such as faith, business, music, and life in general. I am going to use this site as a place for my study of faith in Jesus Christ and all aspects of how it relates to the world today.

In a post coming up, called What is the New Damascus Blog I will explain more about this blog, what its purpose is going to be and what you can expect from the upcoming content for the Damascus blog. I always enjoy discussing faith and other topics with my readers, so be sure to leave a comment below to get things moving.

By damascus | Posted in Media | Also tagged damascus, internet | Comments (0)

What is the New Damascus Blog

November 21, 2007 – 6:29 am

Thank you for visiting the new Damascus blog. This blog was created using what is called a domain hack. In simple terms, that means I put together a domain name that does spell a common name or word by using the entire domain address and a subdomain (the letters prior to the actual domain name itself, in this case the letter “D”).

To give you an idea of what the focus of this blog is intended to be, I have put together a type of mission statement on my about page and it is shown below. If you would like to know more about me, just follow the link.

Most of us go through life with a sense of purpose in being, I think. It can be displayed in many different forms of what we think our own purpose here in this world is to be, it can be with lived day to day with or without purpose and understanding, but eventually most of us come to a time when we are searching for those answers.

It is what we find when we are searching that is important. Just because you are already a Believer doesn’t mean you are going to know exactly what God’s purpose in your life is to finally be, that is up to God, but when we search for meaning in life, true contentment and happiness are ultimately found in the search, understanding, and commitment to our Lord.

We know this, yet as Believers in Christ we still ride a roller coaster of ups and downs where sometimes we are close to the Lord and sometimes far away. I often thought as a Christian if we weren’t always close to God all the time that there was something fundamentally wrong with our faith, or better yet, if our choices are different than those other Believers we know we aren’t true Christians. She drinks, he doesn’t, he has a tattoo, they baptist with to much water, they don’t use enough.

As Believers we still search for meaning to strengthen our faith, understand our doubts, fears, and even judgments of others. This doesn’t stop just because we accepted Christ as our Savior, they could become more pronounced. God made us all in His image, yet each one of us is different. Each of us has different ideas, beliefs even within our own faith, and direction we choose to take in our life.

This blog’s purpose is not to persuade anyone that one way of thinking is better than another but to learn more about God’s purpose for our lives. The one basic premise that we as Believers in Christ take is that He gave us the ultimate choice to make. Whether to choose Christ as our Savior or not. As a pastor once told me, everything else is just details.

Christ died for our sins, he rose again and is alive today, but it is up to us to accept that truth. Once we have accepted Christ of our own free will we are part of the body of Believers, everything else, although not unimportant, is just details.

I always look forward to interacting with my readers, so please be sure to leave a comment or follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/scottfillmer. I look forward to hearing from you.

By damascus | Posted in Media | Also tagged blog, damascus, internet | Comments (0)

You Reached the End? Find More Ways to Monetize Your Blog

May 4, 2007 – 7:27 am

You have reached the very last article post on this blog (or more technically correct, the very first post ever made). So, have you read it all yet? Below you will see a list of the most recent blog posts, there might be a few you haven’t read yet.

This particular article is a bookend post. Do you have one? Sometimes a search can be made or page used for the very last page on your blog, like this one. When someone searches your blog by monthly categories or by page number, this is the last page they come to, make the page useful and provide information to bring the visitor back into the blog, not simply the first post every made.

Click to continue reading “You Reached the End? Find More Ways to Monetize Your Blog”

By islandzephyr | Posted in Media | Also tagged monetize | Comments (1)